Solid core phono interconnect - Recommend Please

"Having said that, which particular AQ IC would you recommend ?"

Any of the copper IC's with the dbs system should work very well. There aren't huge differences between the newest models and some of the older ones, so if you are willing to go used, you can save a lot of money. I have Jaguar, Columbia, Panther and Colorado and all of them are pretty close in SQ. They just work in any application. If you're willing to take a chance, I also have some Cheetah. They're silver and don't always sound as good as copper. But when they do work, they sound great. So far, the only connections I use the Cheetah for are going from source components to a preamp, and from my TT to my phono preamp. But from my phono preamp to my preamp copper is better.

I wouldn't worry about the shielding. Just go by what sounds best.

03-21-15: Johnnyb53
Shielding can raise the capacitance, which can decrease bandwidth and therefore speed (resolution) somewhat, but it also depends on the implementation.... You probably want to keep this cable's total capacitance at 100 pF or lower.

I agree. I'll add that in addition to the design of the particular cable it also depends on the application. The effects and significance of cable capacitance will be very different in a LOMC phono application than in an application involving a high output MM cartridge, or in a line-level analog application. In the case of cables used between LOMC cartridges and phono stages, the significance of keeping cable capacitance low is explained by Lyra cartridge designer Jonathan Carr in his post dated 8-14-10 here. Basically, keeping cable capacitance low works in the direction of allowing lighter (higher value) resistive loading, while at the same time minimizing or avoiding adverse effects on phono stage sonics that might otherwise be a consequence of the lighter loading. The lighter loading in turn "will benefit dynamic range, resolution and transient impact."

I couldn't find any technical info on your Van den Hul cable. I would consider the Mogami to be medium capacitance, at around 26 pf/ft. While humble and inexpensive Blue Jeans LC-1, which is shielded, achieves 12.2 pf/ft, approximately the same value as one of the low capacitance cables Jonathan indicated in his post "resulted [for a 1.2 meter length] in greater flexibility in loading, a more natural tonal balance with better dynamics and resolution, and were a worthwhile upgrade." Which of course is not to say that there aren't other sonically significant differences between Blue Jeans and his or other low capacitance phono cables.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Pani, before you commit, a final suggestion.
My solution to the capacitance issue was to disregard the standard 1 metre lengths of low-C cable and get a custom made 0.5m cable. I called upon the services of Johnny7 at Audio Origami to make it.
(I still make plenty of cables myself but I wanted this job done properly ;^)

Didn't cost anywhere near your budget i.e. £99 and it works superbly.
You'll likely be aware of this already but J7 has plenty of experience with tonearms (he designed the "Syrinx" PU7 etc)

No relation to JohnnyB53 BTW :D
As an aside, did you own a Raven TT previously? How do you find the Verdier by comparison?
All the best,

Additional thought : one of my longstanding bugbears concerns the mechanical contribution of the phono cable.
Linn LP12 is a good example in that the "dressing" & clamping of the (fairly stiff) arm cable was arguably the most important aspect of setting up the suspension?

This idea has haunted me throughout system changes down through the years. I was concerned that going down to a shorter cable would increase the mechanical stiffness and allow more efficient transmission of 50/60Hz vibration from phono stage Mains transformer etc.
Some of the sound properties on your wish list can actually stem from mechanical properties of the phono cable i.e. sound can transition from dull & lifeless to lifelike, airy and natural simply because the cable wasn't mechanically decoupled enough and acting as a vibration conduit?
This is one reason I would avoid super-thick low-C cables for this job (besides, there's only so much that can be shoe-horned into a standard tonearm din plug.)

Early NAIM amps which used extruded Alum casework tended to ring like the proverbial bell and this mechanical characteristic was propagated very effectively into the tonearm so experimentation with mechanical "tuning" before resorting to cables with different electrical characteristics is recommended. (Mech tuning is free but fancy cables are not). What was particularly disturbing was the discovery that the next level IC - the phono stage to power amp - was also critical for mechanical decoupling. :(

Regarding screened cables I'm with Al - play safe and go for the shielded cable. Your biggest concern in this regard will be EMI/RFI from neighbouring gadgets.
Cheers,

I've been using Herron Audio interconnects with very good results. Fluid and transparent. No filtering. No peakiness like with silver. No bloated sound. Just very smooth and detailed. Just the music.

I can't say if they are prone to RF or other noise, but I do use them between the turntable and phono pre to carry the signal from a low output mc cart.

I think they would fit your budget comfortably with some $$ to spare.